Trailer angle detection system using rear camera of vehicle

ABSTRACT

A vehicular trailer assist system includes a control that includes an image processor for processing image data captured by the camera representative of at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle. The control determines whether the trailer has been previously hitched to the vehicle. Responsive to the trailer not being previously hitched, the control operates in a trailer initial calibration mode. Responsive to the control recognizing the trailer, the control operates in a recognized trailer calibration mode. The control obtains calibration data unique to the hitched trailer. The control, responsive to obtaining the calibration data, processes image data captured by the camera using the calibration data to locate the current position of the trailer relative to the vehicle. The control, responsive to locating the current position of the trailer relative to the vehicle, determines a trailer angle based on the located current position.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims the filing benefits of U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 62/844,834, filed May 8, 2019, which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a vehicle vision system for avehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle vision system that utilizesone or more cameras at a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Use of imaging sensors in vehicle imaging systems is common and known.Examples of such known systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,949,331; 5,670,935 and/or 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporatedherein by reference in their entireties.

Trailer assist systems are known that may determine an angle of atrailer hitched at a vehicle. Examples of such known systems aredescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,085,261 and/or 6,690,268, which are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a driver assistance system or visionsystem or imaging system for a vehicle that utilizes a camera disposedat a rear portion of a vehicle and having a field of view exterior ofthe vehicle, the field of view encompassing at least a portion of atrailer hitched to the vehicle. The system also includes a controlcomprising an image processor operable to process image data captured bythe camera, with the image data captured by the camera representative ofthe trailer hitched to the vehicle. The control is operable determinewhether the trailer has been previously hitched to the vehicle.Responsive to the control determining that the trailer has not beenpreviously hitched to the vehicle, the control operates in a trailerinitial calibration mode comprising a bow transformation. Responsive tothe control recognizing the trailer and determining that the trailer hasbeen previously hitched to the vehicle, the control operates in arecognized trailer calibration mode. While operating in the trailerinitial calibration mode or in the recognized trailer calibration mode,the control obtains calibration data unique to the hitched trailer. Thecontrol, responsive to obtaining the calibration data, scans for thetrailer using the calibration data to locate a current position of thetrailer and extracts the trailer angle based on the current position ofthe trailer.

These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of thepresent invention will become apparent upon review of the followingspecification in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vehicle with a trailer assist system that isoperable to determine a trailer angle relative to a vehicle inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for extracting the trailer angle in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a calibration module for obtainingcalibration data in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 4A-4C are images of the calibration module extracting calibrationdata from images captured by a camera;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a transformation module in accordance withthe present invention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are images of the transformation module transforming animage captured by the camera;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a trailer scanning module in accordancewith the present invention;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are images of the trailer scanning module extractingfeatures from an image captured by the camera;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a trailer angle detection module inaccordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of trailer dimensions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A vehicle and trailer maneuvering system or maneuver assist systemand/or driving assist system operates to capture images exterior of thevehicle and of a trailer being towed by the vehicle and may process thecaptured image data to determine a path of travel for the vehicle andtrailer and to detect objects at or near the vehicle and in thepredicted path of the vehicle, such as to assist a driver of the vehiclein maneuvering the vehicle and trailer in a rearward direction. Thevision system includes an image processor or image processing systemthat is operable to receive image data from one or more cameras and thatmay provide an output to a display device for displaying imagesrepresentative of the captured image data. Optionally, the vision systemmay provide a display, such as a rearview display or a top down orbird's eye or surround view display or the like.

Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiments depictedtherein, a vehicle 10 includes a trailer maneuver assist system 12 thatis operable to assist in backing up or reversing the vehicle with ahitched trailer that is hitched at the rear of the vehicle via a hitch14, and the system may maneuver the vehicle 10 and trailer 16 toward adesired or selected location. The trailer maneuver assist system 12includes at least one exterior viewing vehicle-based imaging sensor orcamera, such as a rearward viewing imaging sensor or camera 18 (and thesystem may optionally include multiple exterior viewing imaging sensorsor cameras, such as a sideward/rearward viewing camera at respectivesides of the vehicle), which captures image data representative of thescene exterior and rearward of the vehicle 10, with the field of view ofthe camera encompassing the hitch 14 and/or trailer 16, and with thecamera 18 having a lens for focusing images at or onto an imaging arrayor imaging plane or imager of the camera (FIG. 1). Optionally, a forwardviewing camera may be disposed at the windshield of the vehicle 10 andview through the windshield and forward of the vehicle 10, such as for amachine vision system (such as for traffic sign recognition, headlampcontrol, pedestrian detection, collision avoidance, lane markerdetection and/or the like). The trailer maneuver assist system 12includes a control 11 or electronic control unit (ECU) having electroniccircuitry and associated software. The electronic circuitry includes animage processor that is operable to process image data captured by thecamera or cameras and that may detect objects or the like and/or providedisplayed images at a display device for viewing by the driver of thevehicle (the control and/or display device may be part of orincorporated in or at an interior rearview mirror assembly of thevehicle, or the control and/or the display device may be disposedelsewhere at or in the vehicle). The data transfer or signalcommunication from the camera to the ECU may comprise any suitable dataor communication link, such as a vehicle network bus or the like of theequipped vehicle.

Implementations herein include a novel system and/or method for thedetection of trailer angle using one or more monocular cameras. Thesystem uses a view from a rear camera of a vehicle (e.g., a truck) as aninput for determining the trailer angle. To detect the trailer angle,the system performs trailer angle extraction, performs trailercalibration, performs hitch point extraction, calculates beam length,and determines trailer dimensions. Referring now to the block diagram ofFIG. 2, the system includes an algorithm 200 that receives image datafrom a camera (e.g., the rear backup camera 18 or surround view system(SVS) camera). The image data is transformed to a top-view (i.e., abird's eye view) at step 210 and pre-processed at step 220 and combinedwith data received from the vehicle CAN bus (e.g., speed, acceleration,steering wheel angle, etc.) to generate a trailer and vehicle kinematicmodel at step 230. The model is passed to a state machine 240 thatperforms (as described in more detail below) a calibration at step 250,scans for the trailer at step 260, detects the trailer angle at step270, and determines the trailer dimensions at step 280.

The state machine 240 can, in some examples, enter two differentcalibration modes. A forced calibration mode (i.e., an trailer initialcalibration mode) is a trailer calibration mode that the user selectsand/or enables after connecting a new trailer to the vehicle.Optionally, the system detects that the trailer has not previously beenhitched to the vehicle (i.e., by determining that the trailer does notmatch any currently stored trailer information). In this mode (i.e., arecognized trailer calibration mode), the user is expected to drive thevehicle in a straight path for a certain period of time and/or a setdistance (e.g., several meters) at a constant wheel angle. The systemremoves all background noise and stores the calibration data intomemory. Whenever the same trailer is used (as either detected by thesystem or selected by the user), the system may use this data toidentify the trailer and locate its position. An implicit calibrationmode is a mode that occurs without the knowledge of the driver/user.When the user hitches a previously calibrated trailer to the vehicle,the system enters the implicit calibration mode. This mode enables thesystem to internally recalibrate the trailer while the trailer is inmotion (i.e., towed by the vehicle). Thus, the system uses a forcedcalibration mode for trailers hitched to the vehicle for the first timeand the system uses an implicit calibration mode to calibrate trailersthat have already been calibrated via the forced calibration mode.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4A-4C, in some implementations, the systemexecutes a calibration module 300. The calibration module 300, whencalibrating, performs a steady angle calculation 310, adaptive imagethresholding 320, edge feature extraction 330, edge hit rate calculation340, filter hit rate 350, and template potential build up 360. That is,the calibration module 300 looks for steady state angle (i.e., anunchanging angle). In some examples, the calibration module requires asteady state angle of zero to complete calibration. This is where thewheel angle of the vehicle is zero (i.e., the vehicle is not turning)and the vehicle moves for a threshold distance. For example, the driverdrives the vehicle forward while not turning the wheel. During thistime, image data captured by the rear-facing camera (FIG. 4A) isprocessed and the calibration module performs adaptive imagethresholding and edge extraction (FIG. 4B). The calibration module 300may also calculate hit rate for the various edges of the trailer. Thistechnique increases the edge feature confidence. A hit rate filter, insome examples, removes all unwanted noise and preserves the usefulfeatures (FIG. 4C). Using the remaining useful features, the calibrationmodule 300 generates a template for the hitched trailer.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the system performs a view transformation 500on the image data captured by the camera (e.g., a bow transformation) byperforming a hitch point rotation 510, creating hand fan transformationlook-up tables (LUTs) 520, performing template/feature matrix extraction530, and performing template/feature matrix storage 540. In someexamples, the feature extracted image is transformed using a viewtransformation that symmetrically transforms the image around the hitchposition. The transformation assists in moving the feature extractedimage horizontally rather than a circular motion. After the viewtransformation, the feature image may be ready for storage. Duringcalibration, the system may store the details of the trailer in memoryfor later use. FIG. 6A illustrates an image prior to bow transformationand FIG. 6B illustrates an image after bow transformation (where thetransformation may utilize aspects of the systems described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/850,300, filed on Apr. 16, 2020 (AttorneyDocket MAG04 P3830), which is hereby incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

Referring now to FIG. 7, in some examples, the system includes twoscanning modes. The system may include a scanning mode for connectedtrailers. When the user hitches a previously hitched trailer to thevehicle, the system may automatically load the corresponding calibrationdata or information of the trailer and scan for the current position ofthe trailer. The system may identify and locate the trailer based on thefeature matrix stored during the calibration. After scanning forconnected trailers, the system may enter a second scanning mode thatpersists until the implicit calibration is performed. During this timeperiod trailer angle may be output by the system. The control thusexecutes a trailer scanning module 700 that performs adaptive imagethresholding 710, edge feature extraction 720, and view transformation730. The trailer scanning module 700 extracts templates 740, performtemplate matching 750, and extract the trailer angle 760.

During the scanning mode, the trailer scanning module 700 loads anexisting feature matrix and scans and attempts to locate the currentposition of the trailer using a recent feature extracted image (FIG.8A). That is, a feature matrix is loaded from memory and compared withthe feature extracted image (i.e., an image recently captured by thecamera) to locate the presence and position of the trailer (FIG. 8B).The module extracts edges from the thresholded image and performs a viewtransformation to extract a template within a defined region of interest(ROI). This template ROI is compared with the feature matrix and theoutput of the comparison is a matching score. The matching scoredetermines the position of the trailer in the image. This procedure isrepeated for the full image and the relevant location of the trailer isextracted.

Referring now to FIG. 9, in some implementations, the system executes atrailer angle detection/extraction module 900. The module may performadaptive image thresholding 910, edge feature extraction 920, and viewtransformation 930. The module may extract templates 940, performtemplate matching 950, and extract the trailer angle 960. The trailerangle detection module 900 may follow the same process as the scanningmodule 700 (as described above), with the exception that the searchregion may be limited (e.g., to the extracted ROI) and the templatematching scores may be different. The module 900 may use a global andlocal feature matrix and the combined score validates the position ofthe trailer. As illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the angle may beextracted based on the position of the trailer in the image.

Referring now to FIG. 10, the system may perform other detections and/orextractions. For example, the system may detect or extract thedimensions of the trailer 16. The dimensions that may be detectedinclude the trailer height, the trailer length, the beam length, and/orthe trailer width. The determined or extracted dimensions andinformation may be stored in memory for future use when that particulartrailer is again hitched at the vehicle.

Thus, the present invention provides a means for a vision based systemfor detecting the trailer angle of a hitched trailer using a monocularcamera. Image data captured by the camera may be used to determine thepresence or absence of a trailer, performing trailer calibration, hitchpoint extraction, and trailer angle extraction. Additionally, the cameramay be used to determine trailer dimensions (such as trailer length,width, or beam length).

The system may utilize aspects of the trailering or trailer angledetection systems or trailer hitch assist systems described in U.S. Pat.Nos. 9,085,261 and/or 6,690,268, and/or U.S. Publication Nos.US-2020-0017143; US-2019-0347825; US-2019-0297233; US-2019-0064831;US-2019-0016264; US-2018-0276839; US-2018-0276838; US-2018-0253608;US-2018-0215382; US-2018-0211528; US-2017-0254873; US-2017-0217372;US-2017-0050672; US-2015-0217693; US-2014-0160276; US-2014-0085472and/or US-2015-0002670, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/850,300, filed on Apr. 16, 2020 (Attorney Docket MAG04 P3830), whichis hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The system includes an image processor operable to process image datacaptured by the camera or cameras, such as for detecting objects orother vehicles or pedestrians or the like in the field of view of one ormore of the cameras. For example, the image processor may comprise animage processing chip selected from the EYEQ family of image processingchips available from Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd. of Jerusalem,Israel, and may include object detection software (such as the typesdescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,855,755; 7,720,580 and/or 7,038,577, whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties), andmay analyze image data to detect vehicles and/or other objects.Responsive to such image processing, and when an object or other vehicleis detected, the system may generate an alert to the driver of thevehicle and/or may generate an overlay at the displayed image tohighlight or enhance display of the detected object or vehicle, in orderto enhance the driver's awareness of the detected object or vehicle orhazardous condition during a driving maneuver of the equipped vehicle.

The vehicle may include any type of sensor or sensors, such as imagingsensors or radar sensors or lidar sensors or ultrasonic sensors or thelike. The imaging sensor or camera may capture image data for imageprocessing and may comprise any suitable camera or sensing device, suchas, for example, a two dimensional array of a plurality of photosensorelements arranged in at least 640 columns and 480 rows (at least a640×480 imaging array, such as a megapixel imaging array or the like),with a respective lens focusing images onto respective portions of thearray. The photosensor array may comprise a plurality of photosensorelements arranged in a photosensor array having rows and columns.Preferably, the imaging array has at least 300,000 photosensor elementsor pixels, more preferably at least 500,000 photosensor elements orpixels and more preferably at least 1 million photosensor elements orpixels. The imaging array may capture color image data, such as viaspectral filtering at the array, such as via an RGB (red, green andblue) filter or via a red/red complement filter or such as via an RCC(red, clear, clear) filter or the like. The logic and control circuit ofthe imaging sensor may function in any known manner, and the imageprocessing and algorithmic processing may comprise any suitable meansfor processing the images and/or image data.

For example, the vision system and/or processing and/or camera and/orcircuitry may utilize aspects described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,233,641;9,146,898; 9,174,574; 9,090,234; 9,077,098; 8,818,042; 8,886,401;9,077,962; 9,068,390; 9,140,789; 9,092,986; 9,205,776; 8,917,169;8,694,224; 7,005,974; 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 5,796,094; 5,949,331;6,222,447; 6,302,545; 6,396,397; 6,498,620; 6,523,964; 6,611,202;6,201,642; 6,690,268; 6,717,610; 6,757,109; 6,802,617; 6,806,452;6,822,563; 6,891,563; 6,946,978; 7,859,565; 5,550,677; 5,670,935;6,636,258; 7,145,519; 7,161,616; 7,230,640; 7,248,283; 7,295,229;7,301,466; 7,592,928; 7,881,496; 7,720,580; 7,038,577; 6,882,287;5,929,786 and/or 5,786,772, and/or U.S. Publication Nos.US-2014-0340510; US-2014-0313339; US-2014-0347486; US-2014-0320658;US-2014-0336876; US-2014-0307095; US-2014-0327774; US-2014-0327772;US-2014-0320636; US-2014-0293057; US-2014-0309884; US-2014-0226012;US-2014-0293042; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0247354;US-2014-0247355; US-2014-0247352; US-2014-0232869; US-2014-0211009;US-2014-0160276; US-2014-0168437; US-2014-0168415; US-2014-0160291;US-2014-0152825; US-2014-0139676; US-2014-0138140; US-2014-0104426;US-2014-0098229; US-2014-0085472; US-2014-0067206; US-2014-0049646;US-2014-0052340; US-2014-0025240; US-2014-0028852; US-2014-005907;US-2013-0314503; US-2013-0298866; US-2013-0222593; US-2013-0300869;US-2013-0278769; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0242099;US-2013-0215271; US-2013-0141578 and/or US-2013-0002873, which are allhereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The systemmay communicate with other communication systems via any suitable means,such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in InternationalPublication Nos. WO 2010/144900; WO 2013/043661 and/or WO 2013/081985,and/or U.S. Pat. No. 9,126,525, which are hereby incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

Optionally, the vision system may include a display for displayingimages captured by one or more of the imaging sensors for viewing by thedriver of the vehicle while the driver is normally operating thevehicle. Optionally, for example, the vision system may include a videodisplay device, such as by utilizing aspects of the video displaysystems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,240; 6,329,925; 7,855,755;7,626,749; 7,581,859; 7,446,650; 7,338,177; 7,274,501; 7,255,451;7,195,381; 7,184,190; 5,668,663; 5,724,187; 6,690,268; 7,370,983;7,329,013; 7,308,341; 7,289,037; 7,249,860; 7,004,593; 4,546,551;5,699,044; 4,953,305; 5,576,687; 5,632,092; 5,708,410; 5,737,226;5,802,727; 5,878,370; 6,087,953; 6,173,501; 6,222,460; 6,513,252 and/or6,642,851, and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2014-0022390;US-2012-0162427; US-2006-0050018 and/or US-2006-0061008, which are allhereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments canbe carried out without departing from the principles of the invention,which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appendedclaims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent lawincluding the doctrine of equivalents.

1. A trailer assist system for a vehicle, the trailer assist systemcomprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and viewingexterior and at least rearward of the vehicle, wherein at least aportion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle is viewed by the camera; acontrol comprising electronic circuitry and associated software; whereinthe electronic circuitry of the control comprises an image processor forprocessing image data captured by the camera, wherein image datacaptured by the camera is representative of at least the portion of thetrailer hitched to the vehicle that is viewed by the camera; wherein thecontrol, responsive to image processing of image data captured by thecamera, determines whether the trailer has been previously hitched tothe vehicle; responsive to the control determining that the trailer hasnot been previously hitched to the vehicle, the control operates in atrailer initial calibration mode comprising a bow transformation;responsive to the control recognizing the trailer and determining thatthe trailer has been previously hitched to the vehicle, the controloperates in a recognized trailer calibration mode; wherein the control,while operating in the trailer initial calibration mode or in therecognized trailer calibration mode, obtains calibration data unique tothe hitched trailer; wherein the control processes image data capturedby the camera using the obtained calibration data to locate a currentposition of the trailer relative to the vehicle; and wherein the controldetermines a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle basedon the located current position of the trailer relative to the vehicle.2. The trailer assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, responsiveto locating the current position of the trailer, determines at least onedimension of the trailer.
 3. The trailer assist system of claim 2,wherein the at least one dimension of the trailer comprises at least oneselected from the group consisting of (i) trailer height, (ii) trailerlength, (iii) trailer width and (iv) beam length.
 4. The trailer assistsystem of claim 1, wherein the recognized trailer calibration modecomprises retrieving calibration data generated when the trailer waspreviously hitched to the vehicle.
 5. The trailer assist system of claim1, wherein the initial trailer calibration mode comprises instructing adriver of the vehicle to travel in a straight line for a thresholdperiod of time.
 6. The trailer assist system of claim 5, wherein thecontrol extracts features from image data captured by the camera whilethe vehicle travels in a straight line to generate a feature extractedimage.
 7. The trailer assist system of claim 6, wherein the bowtransformation transforms a perspective of the feature extracted imageinto a bird's eye view perspective.
 8. The trailer assist system ofclaim 6, wherein the bow transformation comprises performing a hitchpoint rotation, creating transformation look-up tables, performingtemplate/feature matrix extraction and performing template/featurematrix storage.
 9. The trailer assist system of claim 8, wherein theextracted features are transformed using a view transformation thatsymmetrically transforms the image around the hitch position so that theextracted features move horizontally rather than in a circular motion.10. The trailer assist system of claim 9, wherein the transformedextracted features are stored in memory for later use when performingthe recognized trailer calibration mode when towing the trailer.
 11. Thetrailer assist system of claim 1, wherein the control locates thetrailer by comparing calibration data to image data captured by thecamera.
 12. The trailer assist system of claim 11, wherein the controlcompares a feature matrix from the calibration data to a feature matrixextracted from the image data captured by the camera.
 13. The trailerassist system of claim 11, wherein the control generates a matchingscore based on the comparison of the calibration data to the image datacaptured by the camera.
 14. A trailer assist system for a vehicle, thetrailer assist system comprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion ofa vehicle and viewing exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle,wherein at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle is viewedby the camera; a control comprising electronic circuitry and associatedsoftware; wherein the electronic circuitry of the control comprises animage processor for processing image data captured by the camera,wherein image data captured by the camera is representative of at leastthe portion of the trailer hitched to the vehicle that is viewed by thecamera; wherein the control, responsive to image processing of imagedata captured by the camera, determines whether the trailer has beenpreviously hitched to the vehicle; responsive to the control determiningthat the trailer has not been previously hitched to vehicle, the controloperates in a trailer initial calibration mode where the controlextracts features from image data captured by the camera while thevehicle travels in a straight line to generate a feature extractedimage; wherein the trailer initial calibration mode comprises performinga hitch point rotation, creating transformation look-up tables,performing template/feature matrix extraction and performingtemplate/feature matrix storage; responsive to the control recognizingthe trailer and determining that the trailer has been previously hitchedto the vehicle, the control operates in a recognized trailer calibrationmode; wherein the control, while operating in the trailer initialcalibration mode or in the recognized trailer calibration mode, obtainscalibration data unique to the hitched trailer; wherein the controlprocesses image data captured by the camera using the obtainedcalibration data to locate a current position of the trailer relative tothe vehicle; wherein the control, responsive to locating the currentposition of the trailer, determines at least one dimension of thetrailer; and wherein the control determines a trailer angle of thetrailer relative to the vehicle based on the located current position ofthe trailer relative to the vehicle.
 15. The trailer assist system ofclaim 14, wherein the at least one dimension of the trailer comprises atleast one selected from the group consisting of (i) trailer height, (ii)trailer length, (iii) trailer width and (iv) beam length.
 16. Thetrailer assist system of claim 14, wherein the recognized trailercalibration mode comprises retrieving calibration data generated whenthe trailer was previously hitched to the vehicle.
 17. The trailerassist system of claim 14, wherein the extracted features aretransformed using a view transformation that symmetrically transformsthe image around the hitch position so that the extracted features movehorizontally rather than in a circular motion.
 18. A trailer assistsystem for a vehicle, the trailer assist system comprising: a cameradisposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and viewing exterior and atleast rearward of the vehicle, wherein at least a portion of a trailerhitched to the vehicle is viewed by the camera; a control comprisingelectronic circuitry and associated software; wherein the electroniccircuitry of the control comprises an image processor for processingimage data captured by the camera, wherein image data captured by thecamera is representative of at least the portion of the trailer hitchedto the vehicle that is viewed by the camera; wherein the control,responsive to image processing of image data captured by the camera,determines whether the trailer has been previously hitched to thevehicle; responsive to the control determining that the trailer has notbeen previously hitched to vehicle, the control operates in a trailerinitial calibration mode where the control extracts features from imagedata captured by the camera while the vehicle travels in a straight lineto generate a feature extracted image; wherein the trailer initialcalibration mode comprises performing a hitch point rotation, creatingtransformation look-up tables, performing template/feature matrixextraction and performing template/feature matrix storage to transform aperspective of the feature extracted image into a bird's eye viewperspective; responsive to the control recognizing the trailer anddetermining that the trailer has been previously hitched to the vehicle,the control operates in a recognized trailer calibration mode; whereinthe control, while operating in the trailer initial calibration mode orin the recognized trailer calibration mode, obtains calibration dataunique to the hitched trailer; wherein the control processes image datacaptured by the camera using the obtained calibration data to locate acurrent position of the trailer relative to the vehicle; wherein thecontrol, responsive to locating the current position of the trailer,determines at least one dimension of the trailer, and wherein the atleast one dimension of the trailer comprises at least one selected fromthe group consisting of (i) trailer height, (ii) trailer length, (iii)trailer width and (iv) beam length; and wherein the control determines atrailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle based on thelocated current position of the trailer relative to the vehicle.
 19. Thetrailer assist system of claim 18, wherein the control locates thetrailer by comparing calibration data to image data captured by thecamera.
 20. The trailer assist system of claim 19, wherein the controlcompares a feature matrix from the calibration data to a feature matrixextracted from the image data captured by the camera.